Oct. 1, 2016

Most of you know that I love to cycle, and many times we bring you information on Team NovoNordisk and how they are doing in the professional cycling world. It is sad to say most of our patients would be hard pressed to get on a bike, much less ride it for 10 miles. However, new studies are showing the value of bicycle riding in helping patients with diabetes, hypertension and metabolic syndrome. Can we ask our older obese patients to get on a bike? Are we willing to take the risk of one of our patients falling. or even worse, the bike breaking because of our patient’s weight?

To research this, Steve and I spent four days at Interbike in Las Vegas, looking at the newest and greatest ideas in cycling. Although there were some beautiful $13,000 hand-made wood bikes and a new Colnago C60 that was worth $16,500, most of the attention was on e-Bikes. These pedal assist bikes are taking every style of cycling by storm, and Steve and I got to try out 2 dozen of the best e-Bikes. There were electric road bikes, mountain bikes, cross bikes, townies and tandems from a variety of manufacturers. Steve got to select one of the bikes and use it for a long-term test ride, and he put together his special feature “Bike to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes.”

And finally, we want to take a moment to acknowledge DIC Advisory Board member R. Keith Campbell, who was recently awarded the Bill Mueller Outstanding Mentor Award for his years of service and leadership, especially in the fields of pharmacy and diabetes. We congratulate Keith on this well-deserved honor, and thank him for his many contributions to DIC.